In the Driver’s Seat

This summer on August 8th at about 6:30 in the morning I got into a car accident. I was on my way to captain practice for the Swimming and Diving team. I was going to lead a day of field activities. I was super excited to teach some of the swimmers how to play rugby. As I was turning into the Middle School parking lot, where captain practice was held, two other cars blocked my view. I looked and saw no one. In one second everything changed. My car was spinning into the ditch. The crash was so loud. There was one big boom sound. It all happened so fast. The smell was the first and last thing that I noticed. The smell of burnt rubber, metal, and gasoline. Even now as I write this the smell of that crash still fills my nostrils and makes my eyes fill with water. My first thought was about the other person in the accident. I needed to go make sure that they were okay. I walked over and noticed that she was already dialing 911. I called my dad and told him where I was. As we waited for the police to arrive, we talked. She was telling me how she had been on her way to work. She was also very close to her destination. She told me that this was also her first accident. My only thought throughout the interaction was “Don’t cry, don’t cry.”

As soon as I was in my dad’s car, I folded in on myself. I couldn’t hold the weight of what had happened any longer and I sobbed. I cried and cried. My thoughts overwhelmed me, “My fault, it was all my fault. If I had only waited two more seconds. If I had only stopped and let the two cars turn before I decided that it was clear, then maybe it wouldn’t have happened. Maybe I could have taught rugby to those swimmers.”

When I got home, I showered to get the smell, that awful smell, off of me. No amount of soap could help me get rid of it. In the shower, the crash repeated in my head. I thought of the damage. The airbags came out, the window on the passenger side was shattered, and there was a huge dent that covered the whole of the passenger side door. I thought of the damage to her beautiful white car; her airbag also came out, and the front of her car was folded. I thought about how I could have died or even worse been paralyzed. How my sports mean the world to me and that one second could have taken that away. Thank God I didn’t have a passenger. I believe they would have died. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if that had been the case.

The day of that accident has changed my life forever. I will never forget how fast it happened. How in less than a second everything I had known had changed. Every time I take a left turn at an uncontrolled intersection, I hold my breath and watch the road longer than I probably should. I get honked at a lot now. The smell never left me, not completely. Every time I get into a car, I smell it. Every time I take a left turn, I smell it. Every time I pass the street where it happened, I smell it. I’m plagued for the rest of my life by that smell of burnt rubber and gasoline. All because I was too impatient to wait just two more seconds.

Driver education is the difference between life and death. If I had known that in one second a car going 60 miles per hour travels 88 feet, then maybe, I would have been too scared to go while those other cars were blocking my view. If more people, especially young people, were better educated on just how frightening being on the road can be then maybe fewer lives will have to be lost on the road. I believe one way to reduce the number of deaths related to driving in young people is for students to hear the stories and just how many lives have been affected by distracted driving. I think we should have students in grades 10th to 12th have a driving safety day, just like we have a bus safety day. One hour every year, to remind students how fast an accident can happen. An hour to share statistics and stories. To show them what can happen, so they don’t have to experience it like I did.

When I drive now, I make sure to always take those extra few seconds to make an extra look. I now know that those extra seconds can save a life. I also make sure to put my phone in a bag or my glove box when I can so it can’t be a distraction. I want to share my story so that maybe I can help someone else become a safer driver. I will also bring my idea of a safe driving day to the school board.